The Price is Right: Solving Climate Crisis with a Carbon Tax

If there is one thing Americans have in common, it’s fear of the t-word: taxes.

And that understandable fear is making it hard to build political capital for one of the best, most efficient and effective ways to reduce carbon emissions: a revenue-neutral, border adjustable carbon tax.

In March, the IPCC released its third installment of its last report. The bad news is: we don’t have much time to stop irreparable damage. That’s scary, but the good news is: we have a little bit of time and we know exactly what we need to do to stop climate change. We need to cut our carbon emissions. We know how to do this — and we have the technology to get started. What our lawmakers lack is the political courage to make it happen.

For the past two years, I have beat the drum on bipartisanship solutions and elected officials coming together to solve the climate crisis. However, my call for putting climate over party has fallen on deaf ears.

I could spend all day offering reasons why bipartisan agreement on climate change is elusive. But the bottom line is — regardless of the reason — both sides of the aisle should put their differences aside, overcome their fear of the t-word, and get firmly behind a carbon tax. The carbon tax is our fastest, best chance at solving climate change…